Meet Foghorn

The little rooster that came with our batch of pullets has started crowing. He needs practice. The husband christened him Foghorn, which is appropriate as he looks like one:

We have started rooster training. He follows me around the coop like he knows that I am the person who dispenses scratch grains, but he’s not quite brave enough to eat out of my hand yet. Dave did the same thing, although Dave never would let me feed him. It doesn’t matter. My goal is to get the roosters to be comfortable around me and other humans.

I am not sure we’ll keep him. Three roosters is a handful, and Dave doesn’t like competition.

There is a garter snake out by the chicken yard. I have almost stepped on it twice because it likes to hide in the grass. It is not a small garter snake. I just hope it doesn’t accidentally slither into the chicken yard and get eaten. When I saw it yesterday, it was heading into the old herb garden, which is a good place for it.

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I stopped by one of the plant stores yesterday on my way out of town. They had tables and tables of foot-high basil plants for $1.00 apiece, so I bought six and will put them in between the tomatoes. I also got a few other herbs and flowers to stick out in the big garden. I need to spend a few hours working out there this morning before it heats up. I blanched some peas the other day and got those into the freezer. I see blackcurrants that need to be picked, too. Cathy gave me a recipe for blackcurrant curd that I want to try. I think it will be delicious mixed in with yogurt.

I really wish it weren’t so hot. I could be getting more done in the garden, especially infrastructure-wise, if I could stand to be out in this heat. And every time the tones go off for our fire department, I worry that it’s going to be a wildfire. Eastern Washington state is getting hammered by fire activity, and there have been brush fires in both Seattle and Spokane within the city limits. That’s just bizarre.

Have I mentioned that I am not a big fan of summer?

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The quilt store where I am teaching serger classes was awarded Bernina District Dealer of the Year for the Pacific Northwest. I think they beat out the big quilt store in Spokane, which is quite an achievement.

I traced one of my favorite T-shirts yesterday to make a pattern. The muslin needs a few tweaks—I made the shoulders a smidge too wide and the armscye needs to be scooped out a bit. I may also have to adjust the sleeve cap, but I’ll see. The fabric is a cotton/spandex I bought at Joanns last year. I’m using it as my test fabric, but once I get the fit right, I should be able to wear this top. I’ll trace a final copy of the pattern and then make myself a batch of shirts using the fabric I got in Missoula.

I also found a full yard of black ponte knit—it’s a heavier knit, almost as heavy as scuba knit—on the remnant rack at Joanns yesterday. It is just enough for me to make the Kensington skirt from Liesl & Co:

I plan to make view A, which is the plain pencil skirt. I haven’t sewn with ponte yet and I want to try it. What I’d really like to make myself are some nice ponte knit pants to wear during the winter. They wouldn’t be as fitted as leggings, and I should be able to tolerate the spandex.

I like pattern drafting, especially with knits. There is a lot of overlap with drafting knitted sweater patterns. Drafting also lets the technical half of my brain out to romp around.